Goldman Sachs CEO gets $67.9 million bonus, $67.9 million too much

Goldman does not cause high profits but is merely associated with it.

Yes Goldman has done well in a credit crunch and put up big profits when the other banks have faltered, but is it because of him? No. In fact, it's not even the talent of those around him. All Goldman has to do is not screw up royally...and just ride on the brand recognition. It's sad really.

So much for a meritocracy and market efficiency.

Read a softball article here.

Snowkiting?

My preference is definitely the water, though I'm thinking of giving this a shot.

Now that's a kite

This is cool. When I saw the picture I thought it was doctored. These Germans have actually designed a $750,000 160 square meter kite that can save as much $1,600 in fuel a day. Hmm...~470 days to pay it off, not including repairs and maintenance. My question is - how do they launch that thing?

Motorolla S9: Bluetooth headset and stereo headphones

I'm surprised these headphones haven't caught on. There I am on my run, no cord dangling by my face, volume/stop/play/forward/back buttons at my fingertips, listening to the music of my choice. Then the music fades, and I hear the sounds indicating a call is coming in. It's my mom. We chat for a while, then hang up and the music resumes. I just don't Motorolla has advertised them enough for what they are. The only downside is that when you use them as a bluetooth headset people think you are talking to yourself...though with the amount of schizophrenics walking around where I live I blend right in.

Pros: sufficient volume (though not enough to give you hearing loss), stay put while running, all in one, price ($70 new on ebay), stereo bluetooth

Cons: built as bad as most motorolla products (I already snapped one of the arms), 1.5 hours of battery life, red inside, ear buds fall off easily (though motorolla provides an extra set), not as light as regular headphones

I bet the plantronics version is better, though they are big.

(Young) Canadian students top world rankings

Turns out Canadian 5th graders ranked 3rd in the world on an international test of science ability.

Yet, does this play out later on, such as in University and beyond? Are Canadians known for their intelligence by their global peers? I don't think so, though there's no reason why we shouldn't be. We are like the small quiet kid in the corner - noone dislikes us because we don't do anything to provoke them, yet noone really likes us either because we have minimal impact in the world (yes we are small, though our impact is less than 1/10th the impact of the US). Why aren't we forging ahead? We don't have political strife, wars to fight, or anything else to distract us other than some Anglo/Franco issues. Yes we came up with the Blackberry, but why can't we create google?